Today, I was at the grocery store, waiting in line to pay. A man jumped me from behind, and my first reflex was to brutally elbow him in the face. I soon discovered my attacker was one of the patients at the disability house at which I work, and he was trying to hug me. FML

3- Safe? Ha, right.
To be straight-up blunt, someone can be killed in a matter of seconds or less. I don't think that an entire grocery store full of trigger-happy armed conceal-and-carry Texans could save someone 100% of the time.

Rate it however you want, but it's the idiotic fear of everything that moves in this country that causes this crap like gun violence in the first place.
Canada has more guns per population points then anywhere on our continent but you rarely here about anyone there going on a killing spree because they don't need to carry them everywhere to fend off imaginary bad guys like we do here.

I respect you as a regular commenter, but I seriously doubt you would use time to turn around and see who is potentially attacking you, when the same time could be used to defend yourself and save your life. It was a split second decision, and stopping to evaluate the situation isn't something that could happen in that amount of time. Again, it was an honest mistake.

Ankoku, I think you're underestimating some people. There are definitely people in this world that are crazy enough to attack someone in a grocery store in the middle of the day. If someone is insane enough to attack someone else in the first place, they probably aren't too concerned with the time of day anyway. You always have to be cautious, because you never know what other people are thinking/planning on doing.

69- people are stabbed and shot in broad daylight more than you think. A few months ago a guy was stabbed at a market full of people and those people just walked around him like he wasn't there. More attacks happen during the daylight hours than at night as there are more people out then. When your suddenly being full on touched like OP was your not going to sit there and think " hmm is this person who's touching me like this a friend or a foe?" startled people don't think first they react first then think.

Well I'll give you an example. What if someone tapped you on your shoulder and you TURNED AROUND TO SEE THEM and you were mugged. Don't you think it makes more sense to be on the defense? Muggings happen more often than you think. So I don't think OP is crazy for reacting.

You've obviously never lived in a bad neighborhood or worked in a place that deals with unstable people. I used to work in a pretty bad neighborhood as a career guide, and there were random attacks in that area all the time. Especially in my own workplace...not everybody who was forced into the job-search system was happy about being there. And many of them were recovering alcoholics or drug addicts who would do ANYTHING to get out of the system...even if that included being violent towards the career guides.

These sorts of "minor attacks" don't all get reported on the news. Because they aren't considered "interesting" or "news worthy". But they do happen. Not everybody is stable or coherent enough to plan their attacks at night with few people around.

Well there are some crazy people who would attack people because they seen that they had money or just because they are that wack.. Also who knows if there's somebody she fears would attack her if they had an opportunity.. You never know.

Are you an idiot? It was actually stated in the FML that the op works at a "disability house". Admittedly I'm not too sure about what a disability house is( is it a care home for the severely disabled?) but it does say where he works and that is not a "fight club or something"

A disability house is where mentally handicapped people live. And that would be my first reaction as well. It has nothing to do with where they work, different people react differently to suprise than others.

I had an internship at a mental institute, and there's mirrors on the corridor walls and you have to check behind your shoulder every few seconds to make sure none of the patients are trying to attack you from behind. So her reflex is quite justifiable.